Space to Ground: Star Sailors: July 26, 2024

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

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Welcome to space to ground, I’m nicholas page. This week we discuss emergency backup navigation techniques in space, tech that could help mitigate radiation exposure, and how can you send one of your experiments to space. Stick around and find out. Modern spacecraft are incredible machines, with sophisticated, high-tech navigation systems. But what happens if those systems fail?

One potential backup is the tried-and-true sextant. The first sextant was produced by john bird in 1759, this instrument is still reliable in measuring the angular distance between two visible objects. While on station, astronauts have tested this device’s function in microgravity. The testing sessions were designed to demonstrate star identification and acquisition, sighting stability, accuracy, and lunar sights. In the past, sextant navigation had been utilized in gemini, apollo, and skylab.

These tests will demonstrate potential future use on orion and gateway. Next, the international space station crew continues radiation research in low earth orbit. Monitoring and measuring radiation on the space station helps scientists plan for further exploration missions. One method is through experiments like lumina. Lumina is an active fiber dosimeter that monitors, in real time, received radiation doses on the space station .

When the optical fibers are exposed to radiation, they darken, which can give the crew a visual cue that equipment or personnel have been exposed. Not only could this technology be used to measure the radiation exposure of astronauts on station, but also for future long-distance missions where solar storms could be more hazardous. Have a you ever wanted to send your research to space? We can help with that. People often ask: why do we do science in space?

What makes the international space station so different from other laboratories? To put it simply, location. On earth, we are all subjected to the full force of the planet’s gravity but on the iss your research could be provided with a consistent microgravity environment. This changes everything from how the human heart pumps to how plants grow and it could change your research in surprising ways. So if you have research or an experiement that you think could benefit from spaceflight, visit www.

nasa. gov/stationopportunites for more information. You can keep up with all things iss by following us on x at @space_station or @iss_research for daily space operations and science updates. And, as always, visit nasa. gov for more stories, blogs, updates, and media broadcasts.

That’s it for space to ground this week. Thank you so much for watching.

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